LONDON: Thousands of doctors in England are staging their 11th walkout on Thursday in a long-running dispute with the government over pay and working conditions, disrupting hospital services just days before the UK general election.
The five-day strike by junior doctors — those in the early years of their careers — shines a spotlight on the troubles besetting the chronically underfunded National Health Service, Britain’s state-funded public health system, a topic that is a a top concern for voters going to the polls on July 4.
Junior doctors, who form the backbone of hospital and clinic care, have been locked in the pay dispute with the government since late 2022. They went on strike for six days in January — the longest in NHS history — and hospitals had to cancel tens of thousands of appointments and operations.
The latest strike begins Thursday and ends on Tuesday, just two days before voters cast their ballots to choose a new House of Commons.
The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, say their pay has dropped by a quarter over the last 15 years and have called for a 35 percent pay uplift. The union says newly qualified doctors earn about 15 pounds ($19) an hour — the UK minimum wage is just over 10 pounds an hour — though salaries rise rapidly after the first year.
Dr. Sumi Manirajan, deputy chair of the junior doctors committee at the union, said that years of underinvestment has resulted in young doctors leaving in droves to countries that offer better pay, with those left behind seriously overworked and underpaid.
“Doctors that I trained with in London, some of the best in the country, have left to go to New Zealand. And actually what it makes me think of is why am I not doing the same? I want to be valued for the work that I do,” she said.
Manirajan, who recently graduated and works in obstetrics and gynecology, added that she sees many women waiting for more than a year for routine procedures.
“These patients are in pain, and it hurts us to see us see these patients come in again and again with the same problem that we know we could treat if we had enough doctors,” she said.
The Conservative government says it gave the doctors pay raises of between 8.1 percent to 10.3 percent last year and said that it was a generous settlement. It maintained that authorities can’t make a pay offer during the preelection period but the union refused to call off the strikes.
Manirajan said that it was unfortunate that the government chose to call an election while knowing that the dispute was unresolved.
The medics’ union said it was ready to talk, and it has already had some discussions with the opposition Labour Party, which has a considerable lead in polls.
“It is difficult to comprehend how either the Conservative Party or the Labour Party can deliver on their manifesto commitment to recover NHS performance over the next Parliament without first ending the dispute,” said Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at The King’s Fund think tank.
Thousands of doctors go on strike in England a week before the UK general election
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Thousands of doctors go on strike in England a week before the UK general election
- The five-day strike by junior doctors in the early years of their careers comes just a week before the UK general election
- Junior doctors have been locked in the pay dispute with the government since late 2022
Ivory Coast receives first life-saving malaria vaccines
- The mosquito-borne disease kills four people a day in the country, mostly small children, according to health officials
- The R21/Matrix-M vaccine has been authorized by Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic
ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast this week received its first vaccines against malaria, a disease that kills four people a day in the country, mostly small children, the government said Saturday.
A total of 656,600 doses have been received, which will “initially vaccinate 250,000 children aged between 0 and 23 months” in 16 regions, the government said.
Although the number of malaria-related deaths has fallen from 3,222 in 2017 to 1,316 in 2020 in Ivory Coast, the disease “remains the leading cause of medical consultations,” according to the Ministry of Health.
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine has been authorized by Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
The Ivorian government is also distributing mosquito nets and is spraying insecticide in endemic areas.
Malaria causes fever, headaches and chills, and can become serious or even fatal if left untreated.
In 2022, it caused more than 600,000 deaths worldwide, 95 percent of them in Africa, and 80 percent of them in children under the age of 5, according to the WHO.
The vaccine is the second malaria vaccine that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended for children and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
18 killed, 42 injured in multiple Nigeria suicide attacks: emergency services
- Attackers separately targetted a wedding, a funeral and hospital in Borno state, says emergency official Barkindo Saidu
- 19 of the injuries were deemed serious and among the victims were children and pregnant women
KANO, Nigeria: At least 18 people were killed and 19 seriously wounded in a string of suicide attacks in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday, emergency services said.
In one of three blasts in the town of Gwoza, a female attacker with a baby strapped to her back detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony, according to a police spokesman.
The other attacks in the border town across from Cameroon targeted a hospital and a funeral for victims of the earlier wedding blast, authorities said.
At least 18 people were killed and 42 others injured in the attacks, according to the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
“So far, 18 deaths comprising children, men, females and pregnant women” have been reported, said Barkindo Saidu, the head of the agency, in a report seen by AFP.
Nineteen “seriously injured” people were taken to the regional capital Maiduguri, while 23 others were awaiting evacuation, Saidu said in the report.
A member of a militia assisting the military in Gwoza said two of his comrades and a soldier were also killed in another attack on a security post, though authorities did not immediately confirm this toll.
Boko Haram militants seized Gwoza in 2014 when the group took over swathes of territory in northern Borno.
The town was taken back by the Nigerian military with help from Chadian forces in 2015 but the group has since continued to launch attacks from mountains near the town.
Boko Haram has carried out raids, killing men and kidnapping women who venture outside the town in search of firewood and acacia fruits.
The violence has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million in Nigeria’s northeast.
The conflict has spread to neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition to fight the militants.
UK Reform leader Farage speech interrupted by banner mocking Putin views
- Farage is seeking election as a lawmaker, or member of parliament (MP), in Clacton-on-Sea, which is nine miles from Walton on the Naze
LONDON: A speech being delivered by Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party, was interrupted late Saturday when a banner of Russian President Vladimir Putin descended from the ceiling at an election rally.
Campaign group Led by Donkeys, which opposes Farage’s views, said it was responsible for the stunt at the Columbine Center, at Walton on the Naze in southeast England, and posted a video of the unveiling on X.
That showed the banner slowly unfurling behind a speaking Farage, revealing a smiling Putin giving a thumbs-up sign, along with the words “I (heart emoji) Putin.”
Led By Donkeys said on X: “Nigel Farage says Putin is the world leader he ‘admires the most’ and blames the West for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
That was a reference to comments Farage made earlier this month when he said the eastward expansion of the European Union and NATO had provoked Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The remarks, made in an interview with the BBC, drew strong criticism across the British political spectrum ahead of a July 4 national election in which Farage’s party is predicted to win millions of votes.
On seeing the banner, Farage said: “Who put that up there,” adding: “Someone at the Columbine Center needs to get the sack.”
The audience then started chanting: “Rip it down.”
Reuters has sought comment from Reform UK.
Farage is seeking election as a lawmaker, or member of parliament (MP), in Clacton-on-Sea, which is nine miles from Walton on the Naze.
On Friday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was hurt and angry that a supporter of Reform UK had been recorded making a racial slur about him, saying it was too important for him not to speak out.
Putin calls for resuming production of intermediate missiles after scrapping of treaty with US
- The US withdrew from the treaty in 2019, citing Russian violations
- The last remaining arms-control pact between the US and Russia is the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for resuming production of intermediate-range missiles that were banned under a now-scrapped treaty with the United States.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, or INF, which banned ground-based nuclear and conventional missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers (310-3,410 miles), was regarded as an arms control landmark when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan signed it in 1988.
The US withdrew from the treaty in 2019, citing Russian violations.
“We need to start production of these strike systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where — if necessary to ensure our safety — to place them,” Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s national security council.
Putin said Russia hadn’t produced such missiles since the 2019 treaty scrapping, but that “today it is known that the United States not only produces these missile systems, but has already brought them to Europe for exercises, to Denmark. Quite recently it was announced that they are in the Philippines.”
Since withdrawing from the treaty, the US Army has moved forward with developing a conventional, ground-launched, midrange missile capability called the Typhon that would have been banned under the INF. The Typhon fires two Navy missiles, the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile and Standard Missile-6.
The US Army ran the system through tests during an exercise in the Philippines this spring.
The end of the INF was a milestone in the deterioration of relations between the US and Russia.
The last remaining arms-control pact between Washington and Moscow is the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. It’s set to expire in 2026, and the lack of dialogue on anchoring a successor deal has worried arms control advocates.
Putin’s statement comes amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict in Ukraine and concern about possible nuclear attacks.
In June, Putin spoke to executives from international news organizations about Moscow’s use of nuclear weapons.
“We have a nuclear doctrine, look what it says,” he said. “If someone’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible for us to use all means at our disposal. This should not be taken lightly, superficially.”
Russia says Ukraine shells Kursk region after deadly drone attack
- A video posted on Smirnov’s Telegram channel showed him at a destroyed house amid piles of rubble and building materials
KYIV: The governor of southern Russia’s Kursk region said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had shelled parts of the region throughout the day after an overnight drone attack on a village killed five people, including two children.
Governor Alexei Smirnov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the five fatalities occurred in a house in the village of Gorodishche, east of the regional center of Kursk. Two family members were being treated in hospital.
A video posted on Smirnov’s Telegram channel showed him at a destroyed house amid piles of rubble and building materials.
Smirnov said Ukrainian forces had shelled eight villages near the border intermittently throughout the day. Two residents from the village of Guyevo were reported to have been injured.
Reuters could not independently verify the reported shelling of the region.
